A Castle of Cake
by Caramel Custard
Summary: In the days and months after Karasumori has been sealed, Yoshimori must find a way to cope with the dramatic changes to his lifestyle, and has to deal with the aftereffects of everything that has happened. Finding motivation is easier said than done; and after all he's been through, Yoshimori finds it difficult to move forward. YoshixTokine set after the Manga ending


**Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or the rights to Kekkaishi. All ownership belongs to it's original creators.**

Yoshimori Sumimora turned over onto his back, groaning in irritation. _another restless night._ he thought to himself, staring at the ceiling to take up his time.  
Ever since Karasumori had been sealed away and his night time job of defending the school grounds had ended, Yoshimori hadn't had a single night of ease.  
One would think that in not having to work and strain oneself all night, something like sleep would come easily. Especially to someone who seemed to have such a natural talent for it.  
But no matter how he tried, he couldn't get his sleeping pattern to any form of normality.

If he did manage to actually fall asleep during the night, it would be restless and full of dreams of hunting Ayakashi through the night, and when he finally did wake up; it was absurdly early. Yoshimori had always considered himself more of an afternoon person.

Finally giving in and relenting to the fact that he wouldn't be able to get himself back to sleep, Yoshimori got up and began to stretch. He knew for a fact that despite his sudden abundance of free time and availability to study, he would still probably end up slacking off during most of school.

It wasn't so much that he didn't care to try, but rather that he just couldn't seem to motivate himself.  
That was his one major problem at the moment. Motivation. After all that had happened, he just couldn't find it in himself to bother with doing anything.  
He was restless, but couldn't find the right facet to expend his energy.

Despite the fact that they weren't skills he had to use as often anymore, he still practiced his Kekkai technique. Mostly just skill and form more than anything, to reinforce rather than improve,  
Or maybe it was just out of habit.

Instead of worrying about what he was going to do with himself for the rest of the day, he got dressed and left his room.  
He could hear noises coming from the kitchen and assumed his father was preparing breakfast. Without too much consideration, he began walking towards the noise.

His father, Shuji; turned around upon hearing footsteps.  
"Ah, Good morning Yoshimori! Up so early?"

Yoshimori nodded blearily, not really wanting to talk about it.  
"Can I give you a hand with preparing breakfast?" He asked, genuinely looking for something to do.

"Oh no, that's fine." His father turned back to what he was doing. "You just go and relax, I'm almost finished here anyway."

While Yoshimori knew he was just trying to be nice, relaxing was the last thing he really wanted to do. He just wanted something to occupy him right now, but he relented and left his father to his work anyway. He didn't want to be a bother, either.

Since he was already practically ready for school, he went outside and sat by the house, simply because there was nothing else to do.

Yoshimori lent his head against the back wall of the house, tilting his face up to look at the sky.

Had it really been just a month since Karasumori had been sealed away?  
Somehow it felt like an eternity ago.  
Yoshimori briefly wondered how Tokine was dealing with all of this. Was she reacting in a similar way to him?  
She seemed normal enough at school. _She's probably handling it fine. _he mused to himself _She's always been more mature about stuff like this anyway._

For a while he just sat there, not really thinking about anything in particular; just letting his mind wander for whatever it was worth.  
As he was just now getting somewhere in between unconsciousness and a daydream, a voice dragged him back to reality.

"Yoshimori!" It had been his younger brother, Toshimori; sent out to bring Yoshimori in for breakfast. "Everyone's waiting, so hurry up, okay?" He sounded somewhat off, as though he'd been calling him for a long time, but Yoshimori hadn't been responding.

"Yeah yeah, I'm coming." He spoke with a tired voice, and stood up with some difficulty. Was it bad that he felt like he was beginning to feel the effects of old age at only 15?

Coming inside he sat down at the table with his family and they sat mostly in silence as they ate.  
Toshimori was telling his father about some project he had at school, but Yoshimori wasn't really listening. Once again he was lost in his own thoughts.

_Has the table always looked this empty?_

It was strange. Even though the people sitting there now eating breakfast were the only people who were regularly there, somehow the table felt smaller.  
Masamori rarely came over for dinner, and his mother had only come back to eat with them once, and even then that had been a shikigami version of her.  
As he thought more and more about it, he realized that with his mother gone, even if Masamori came back for any period of time, they wouldn't be able to eat as a full family ever again.  
As much as he complained when Masamori did come to visit, it pained him to think about.

As he finished his food he thanked his father for the meal and left the table to fetch his bag and walk to school.

Calling out a general goodbye to nobody in particular, he left the house and set off on his walk, taking it slow as he had no need to arrive early as he surely would.

Just as he was setting off on his path, he heard another voice behind him; this time belonging to someone female.

"Yoshimori!" it called out, in a tone that clearly wanted him to wait up for her.

Turning around, Yoshimori laid eyes on Tokine, remembering why it was he did what it was he had to do a month ago. It wasn't for his duty, or some sort of justice or even for his own mother.  
But it had been for her. For Tokine. To protect her.

And that was a decision he would never regret making.

_**A/N:  
So, what do we think so far? I just finished the Kekkaishi anime and then the manga for the second time, and I've gotta say, it's one of my favourites. It's a shame it doesn't get nearly as much recognition as it's worth. I was trying to come up with a good idea for a fanfiction, but nothing was coming up for me. The only thing I could say at the ending was that I wanted more. If not just a little bit.**_

_**So that's going to be this fic's main goal- to look a little further into the lives and relationships (Wink wink nudge nudge) of the characters after the events at the end of the manga. Mostly Yoshimori and possibly with some Tokine and Sen in there as well.**_

_**Oh well, let me know what you think in the review section, and give this story a follow if you're interested!**_

**_Thanks again for reading!_**


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